This is week three for the One Room Challenge, and I cannot believe how quickly things are moving!  We are halfway through the entire transformation of our basement, and I can say that I am loving how the space is starting to come together.

Last week I cleared the clutter in our basement.  I went through everything and decided if I needed to keep, trash, donate, or sell.  I was surprised to find how many things ended up in the basement that we no longer needed.  And I could actually see things that had been tucked away for way too long.

Once the entire space was cleared of clutter, I ended up with piles of toys, games, and bins sitting in the middle of the basement.  All of these things are items we want to keep, so I just needed to figure out placement for everything.  This brought me to rethinking these old built-in shelves.

They were really deep shelves that worked well for shoving everything I didn’t want to deal with into.  But I didn’t want to keep deep shelves knowing that this bad habit would probably happen again once we started living in the space again.

I decided that the shelves needed to go.  We needed to have shorter shelves so we could see things.  But, after all the toy organization I did, we ended up not having as many toys in the basement as we originally had.  That means that I could turn this little nook into a play space for the kids!!

I always wanted to have a “performance area” when I was little.  My parents turned our basement under-the-staircase nook into a “performance area” with a puppet theater.  I just loved it, so I wanted to do the same for my kiddos!

So, we started by removing everything from the shelves.  Then, we took out the shelves and the metal brackets holding up the shelves.

After patching all the holes, we Ben painted the entire nook.  We went with Admiral Blue by Benjamin Moore because this is such a pretty color, and we had some left over from the kids’ bathroom.  Which means that we didn’t have to buy paint, which is the best thing ever!!  I don’t like having the house be a ton of different colors, so by keeping with the same color scheme throughout the house, it makes picking paint colors much easier.

Once that nook was painted, we knew it was time to paint the rest of the basement.  The basement has lower ceilings, with minimal natural light.  And by minimal, I mean our emergency exit window gets sunlight shining through it for about an hour each morning on really sunny days.  So, the walls have to be a light color.

This debate over basement color went on a for while, but, in the end, I won by being able to paint it white.  Which was the perfect decision.  The basement feels much more open, bright, and clean.  We used Ultra White by Benjamin Moore.

And, as we started painting, we realized we could really add some pop of detail to the stairs by adding a dark gray color to the railing and the paneling on the bottom of the wall.  We used Vintage Pewter by Benjamin Moore for that extra pop of color.  I love how it plays nicely with the Admiral Blue in the nook.

Then, I started to play with where to put the furniture.  I decided that I wanted the sofa on the long wall.  Not only would it open up the space, but the kids could play in front of us and we could still be sitting and relaxing when we entertained.  But, this would mean that I would have to move the television.

As I am moving the television, I realize that there is no electrical outlets anywhere on that side of the room.  Then, my husband points out that the cable is on that corner wall, making it challenging to move the entire television stand.

This is a huge problem, since this is the largest television in our home.  We needed to come up with a plan to make sure that we could keep this open concept basement idea in tack.

Well, since we are doing some work to the kitchen this summer, we talked with our general contractor.  He said that they can expand the furnace room, which would create a wall that could hold the television.  This would work out perfectly, as he is already taking out the back part of the bar that we left in the basement a few years ago.

We really did need to expand the furnace room, because it is so tiny.  This option really will work well, but it won’t be completed by the end of this challenge.  (Insert sad face).  So you will have to stay tuned for an update on this space in August!

So, I can actually keep the sofa on the big wall!  I am very excited that my plan is still holding together.  Now, I am off to paint the fireplace.  We decided to paint the fireplace the same white as the walls, and paint the mantel the same color gray as the railing and paneling on the stairs.  I think it will be a nice balance of the colors together to make the space feel cohesive.

Don’t forget to check out all the other projects for the One Room Challenge as well!!